Sanxhaku: “The Tepelenë Court will decide on the basis of the order it has received from Tirana” Lawyer Sanxhaku has been urgently summoned to Tepelenë Following the entry into force of the New Penal Code, a retrial was also expected for Socialist leader Fatos Nano. Under the law on the entry into force of this code, for people convicted of more than one criminal offence for which the new Code provides lighter sentences, the prison administration was to submit the request, and the case was to be heard by the district court where the prisoner was serving his sentence. After hesitating, the administration of Bënçë Prison sent the request to the Tepelenë Court, but the latter did not register it. The Court President and the Prison Director were summoned to the Ministry of Justice and ordered by the minister to return the request and Nano’s case file. The reasoning under the law is: “Nano was not sentenced to the maximum penalty provided for by the New Penal Code.” Under these circumstances, Nano and his lawyers submitted the request themselves, in accordance with the law. Nevertheless, Sanxhaku has been urgently summoned for tomorrow. Lawyer Përparim Sanxhaku speaks, pages 3, 13

Hundreds of phone calls were made to our newsroom yesterday asking why the newspaper “Koha jonë” had not appeared on the market. The interest in the blocking of an issue of Albania’s largest independent newspaper is understandable, just as the reason given by the Demokracia printing house is absurd. The day before yesterday, “Koha jonë” published on its front page a report accompanied by a photograph about a foreign aircraft that had landed the previous day on the runway of the military airfield at Gjadër and had been loaded with weapons and military ammunition. Although there was no denial from the official side, unlike in other cases, in the evening, after the newspaper had been prepared in the newsroom, the Demokracia printing house refused to print it. The reason given was that the materials had been sent to the printing house 15 or 20 minutes late. This reason was given to us, but it certainly cannot be the real one, since this printing house has accepted our newspaper’s materials many times, even up to two hours after the scheduled time. The head of this printing house himself has promised us that we can submit one or two pages late when there are late-breaking events that need to be covered. The goodwill of the printing-house workers has made it possible for “Koha jonë” to be printed even when it was delivered at 2 a.m., as happened on the evening when we were waiting for the reporter and photographs from Moldova, where Albania won 3–2. But on the evening after the report about the aircraft was published, when the materials were sent at around 12:20 a.m., director Fejzi Bozgo ordered that “Koha jonë” not be printed—even if it arrived just five minutes later. That is what the employees told us; they did not want this to happen, but were obliged to follow their superior’s order. We recall that the Demokracia printing house is run by the newspaper RD. May God grant that this blockade is not repeated if the foreign aircraft carrying weapons lands again on the military runway at Gjadër. A. FRANGAJ

The boy’s father: “They will get married” page 6

The bandits wore wigs and carried pistols.

They return once again

Bandits wearing wigs and carrying pistols seize 10 million lekë from the company’s cash register page 2

Berisha before Stefanopulos as a historian page 3

The Prosecutor’s Office has gone out of control, abusing its position Court of Cassation President Mr. Zef Brozi speaks page 12

Preç Zogaj on the Clinton-Berisha meeting I wanted to forget some news items published in the government press over the last six months, which spoke of several American congressmen’s insistence with President Clinton that he set aside a meeting with the head of state of Albania. I have not been able to understand why they had to insist so much on a simple meeting and, above all, I have not been able to understand why these things had to be published in the newspaper. Because now the impression is created that Bill Clinton did not want to disappoint the congressmen around him, and so he found a date in September to please all sides. In other words, a meeting to see each other, talk a little, and shake hands. Whereas I would have wanted a political meeting that naturally gives you a page 12

They return once again to Macedonia DURRËS — A group of 20 Kurdish clandestine migrants was detained yesterday in a swift operation by law-enforcement forces at the Iliria station on the beach in Durrës (as acknowledged by the migrants’ own hosts). After being detained, the group was taken out of Albania across the border by bus via Macedonia. The latest operation is a continuation of the operation carried out in recent days along the Durrës coastline, as a result of which a group of clandestine migrants was detained and the beach was temporarily cleared of the groups of Kurds who had flocked there. But it seems the traffickers and hosts of the clandestine migrants refuse to accept this situation. Since trafficking clandestine migrants is their only means of livelihood amid total unemployment, they (declare that they) have decided to use every means to ensure their survival.

Most of them end up as prostitutes page 2